I appreciate sci-fi that dares to explore ideas that aren’t pulled from so far off into the future as to border on fantasy. Down and Out covers a range of topics, some closer to home than others, but all nicely woven into the backdrop of an otherwise well-told tale of neurotic freakout and redemption. I admit to hoping that Doctorow would jump right in with the big boys, like Vernor Vinge and Greg Egan, but he deserves another decade and half a dozen more novels before he’s held up to such high standards.